00:00:04
SAM DOUGLAS: The USA
houses inmates that are ranked as some
of the world's most violent and
00:00:10
sadistic murderers. One of them is notorious
killer Denver Simmons. GEAN JOHNSON: Denver
Simmons ranks at the top
00:00:20
of the list of evil. - This isn't a serial
killer with an MO. This is a serial killer
who's getting worse.
00:00:28
SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons is
as cold-hearted as his murders were cold-blooded. - Any person that kills
a woman and a 13-year-old
00:00:37
child is a monster. - Simmons is an extremely
evil individual because he just kills
people for the fun of it.
00:00:46
TARA J. LEWIS: Whatever serves
him best is what Denver does. SAM DOUGLAS: Behind
bars, Simmons' barbarous
00:00:54
killing streak only continued. - To kill in a cell back
to back is extremely rare.
00:01:01
And it's pretty hard
to just commit one murder. He managed to commit four. - There's no indication
that any of his victims
00:01:15
ever did anything to wrong him. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: It was
just such a callous act to just do it just because he
was bored, just because they
00:01:26
annoyed him,
and just because he didn't want to die forgotten. [theme music] SAM DOUGLAS: A total
of 16,000 inmates are held
00:01:59
in the state of South
Carolina, spread out across 21 penitentiaries. One of these prisons
houses a collection
00:02:08
of the most terrifying
inmates to ever be convicted. - Kirkland Correctional
Institution
00:02:15
is a maximum security prison
in Columbia, South Carolina. It is an institution that
houses the worst of the worst.
00:02:24
It's most violent offenders
and often the mentally ill. You have a lot
of stainless steel
00:02:31
tables and chairs and benches. It's very noisy. It smelled, to me,
very sterile.
00:02:38
There was a wing where
everybody was fully locked down at all
times in isolation,
00:02:44
and they were brought food. They weren't allowed to roam. SAM DOUGLAS: One
of the most prolific
00:02:50
murderers Kirkland
Correctional has ever housed is Denver Simmons. LINA HAJI: There's
no indication
00:03:06
that any of his victims ever
did anything to wrong him. Not that that would have made
it any better, but that just
00:03:14
elevates the level
of evil in Simmons. HECTOR BRAVO:
The type of individual that takes advantage
of mental health individuals,
00:03:26
or even their friend, and kills
them is a severely mentally disturbed and evil person.
00:03:32
- He uses a broomstick
to choke him against his throat and then ultimately,
after passing out,
00:03:38
he stuck the broomstick
down his ear. - I don't think there's any
environment that will actually
00:03:44
stop Simmons from murdering. SAM DOUGLAS: Denver
Simmons was born in 1981 and grew up in the city
of Dayton, Tennessee.
00:04:02
TARA J. LEWIS:
My name is Tara Lewis, and I am the sister
of Denver Simmons. I'm eight years older than him.
00:04:11
My first memory of him is
just he was a little chunky baby with no hair. We grew up in Dayton.
00:04:20
Back in the '90s, it was just
very small country living. SAM DOUGLAS: Tara
and her brother
00:04:28
had the same mother
but different fathers. - I have some memories
of Denver's dad,
00:04:36
and they're all bad. He was the type of person
when you were around him, you felt things were off,
even when you were little.
00:04:44
SAM DOUGLAS: When Denver
was just a toddler, his father left,
and their mother moved
00:04:49
in with her new partner, Gary. - They were together
for a few years, and I have good
memories from when
00:04:58
mom and Gary were together. And then she left. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: His mother
was addicted to drugs.
00:05:06
Ultimately, his
mother ends up leaving the home and Denver behind. TARA J. LEWIS:
When mom left, we
00:05:15
would hear from her
sometimes, and then we wouldn't hear from her. She'd be gone
for weeks, months,
00:05:21
and nobody would
know where she was. LINA HAJI: The fact that she
abandoned him is letting him
00:05:29
know very early on in life
that he cannot really count on anyone, particularly the
parental figure who's supposed
00:05:36
to take care of him the most. That sends the message
that he's not worth it. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons
continued to be
00:05:52
raised by his mom's
ex-partner, Gary, who ensured he attended school. Tara lived close by with
their grandmother.
00:06:04
Her brother would go
and visit every weekend. - We were spread out
in different homes
00:06:12
for the most part. Denver would come
to Granny's, and that's when he could
of let his guard down,
00:06:21
and he could have fun. I was very close with Denver,
and I loved him being there.
00:06:32
He absolutely loved Granny's
spaghetti and her fudge. She would make
that every weekend.
00:06:40
Those were good times. SAM DOUGLAS: In 1991,
when Simmons turned 10, his mom, who was now
sober, returned to his life
00:06:49
and regained custody of him. - She raised him from then
on out, and at that time,
00:06:57
her life was
completely different. She was a very good mom to him. Denver was a good kid.
00:07:07
He was very smart. SAM DOUGLAS: But just
a couple of years later, at the age of 13,
Denver began to change.
00:07:22
TARA J. LEWIS: Denver started
running with some kids. They weren't good
influences, and he wanted
00:07:30
to fit in with the crowd. He had been stealing, and he
was selling basketball shorts out of mom's garage.
00:07:39
Mom was able, at that point in
her life, to provide for him, so there was no reason
for him to be stealing other
00:07:45
than I guess it was
a thrill for him, like, an adrenaline rush. Mom found out about it.
00:07:52
He got in trouble. She knew that things
were changing with him, and so she took him
to see a psychiatrist.
00:08:02
CYNTHIA ROLDAN: He ends
up getting diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He described being
on the medication
00:08:08
as, like, not feeling like
himself, just feeling numb. And so he did not
routinely take it.
00:08:19
TARA J. LEWIS: That was
a constant battle with him, was trying to get him
to stay on his medication.
00:08:26
- It seems as if the family
thinks that the medication is going to be the cure-all.
00:08:31
Well, that's not how it works. He needs nurturing. He needs therapy. He needs peer relationships.
00:08:36
He needs life skills. He needs all sorts of things
that it doesn't seem were given to him.
00:08:44
SAM DOUGLAS:
As a teenager, Simmons was unable to hold
down a part-time job, often not showing up for work.
00:08:52
He preferred to spend his time
shoplifting from local stores. TARA J. LEWIS: I
think at that time,
00:08:58
it was an obsession
or an addiction with him. He would steal anything
and everything for no reason.
00:09:06
He was probably
getting the money and buying pot at the time. And then I found out
he started doing meth.
00:09:14
He was very violent
when he was on drugs. Most people use drugs
to hide from their feelings,
00:09:20
and he was using drugs
to get the rage out of him. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons continued
his drug-fueled lifestyle
00:09:33
while still living
with his mom. In his early 20s, he got into
a relationship with a girl,
00:09:40
and they had a son together. - He absolutely loved his son. He was crazy about him.
00:09:47
But he was violent
with the girlfriend, and she left him eventually
and moved to another state
00:09:54
up north. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons' ex
took their son with her. - And I think he lost
his purpose in life.
00:10:08
SAM DOUGLAS: In 2007, due
to his drug addiction and bad behavior, 27-year-old
Simmons was
00:10:15
kicked out of the home
he shared with his mother and stepfather. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: He met a woman.
00:10:22
They started dating, and they
lived together in Georgia. But somewhere along
the lines, they
00:10:28
end up borrowing money
from a family member and decided to move to South
Carolina, where she has family.
00:10:35
SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons
and his new girlfriend moved 350 miles
away and moved in with Sheila Dodd, a relative
of Simmons' girlfriend.
00:10:45
- Sheila Dodd was
from South Carolina. She was a resident
of Colleton County. She had one son.
00:10:53
That was William. He was 13 years old. TARA J. LEWIS: So while
Denver was in South Carolina,
00:11:03
I lost contact with him. I didn't talk to him,
didn't hear from him. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons
and his girlfriend
00:11:13
live with Sheila and William
in the small community called Round O near
the town of Walterboro.
00:11:22
GEAN JOHNSON: Walterboro
is a small town. We are about 55, 60 miles from
Charleston, South Carolina.
00:11:30
It's a nice place
to raise a family. SAM DOUGLAS: At first,
the four of them all got along.
00:11:41
TARA J. LEWIS: They
were living at her farm, and they allowed
Denver to take William
00:11:46
back and forth to school. So they trusted
him pretty well. He was welcomed there.
00:11:53
And then things,
I guess, got bad. - Sheila told him that
he needed to get a job
00:12:02
and help with paying
bills, et cetera. And he agreed that he would try
to get a job, but he never did.
00:12:09
She told him that
if he didn't get a job, he would have to leave. LINA HAJI: Simmons feels
that he is entitled to live
00:12:17
where he wants to live. He doesn't have to work. He doesn't have to pay his way.
00:12:22
People should do for him what
he refuses to do for himself. He's developed the coping skill
of the way to advance in life
00:12:32
is to take advantage
of other people. SAM DOUGLAS: Nothing
changed, so Sheila Dodd
00:12:39
asked Simmons and his
girlfriend to leave the farm. TARA J. LEWIS: She went
back home to her family,
00:12:46
and he had nowhere to go. And he couldn't come home. SAM DOUGLAS: On May 1, 2007,
45-year-old Sheila Dodd took
00:13:01
her now 14-year-old
son, William, to school and then returned home. GEAN JOHNSON: When she
came back to the house,
00:13:10
Denver was inside. They had words. She told him that you're
not supposed to be here.
00:13:16
He got her gun, which
was already in the house, and he shot her. [gunshot] LINA HAJI: It was pretty
calculated and planned.
00:13:35
He knew what time
she was coming home. Sheila just happened
to be an easy target.
00:13:40
He clearly had rage
towards her and was viewing her as the source
of his problems,
00:13:45
as opposed to taking
accountability for his own irresponsibility. GEAN JOHNSON: Once he shot
her, he dragged her body
00:13:52
to the back of the yard,
and he took a white sheet out and covered the body. TARA J. LEWIS: He then
takes her car keys,
00:14:00
takes her debit card,
and goes off with them. He has lunch with
her debit card and then decides
that he's going to go
00:14:09
pick up her son at school. SAM DOUGLAS: 25-year-old
Simmons met William at the school
and told him his mom
00:14:21
was at a doctor's appointment. The 14-year-old
trusted Simmons, so he got into the car.
00:14:32
They drove to the house. GEAN JOHNSON: They
walked in the house. William started walking
around and realized his mom's
00:14:40
cell phone was in the house. I think he even seen his
mom purse in the house. And he started questioning
Denver, where is my mom?
00:14:49
She would not leave
these things in here. SAM DOUGLAS:
William then spotted a white sheet in the yard
that, unknown to him,
00:14:59
was covering his mom's body. With his suspicions raised, the
14-year-old walk towards it.
00:15:09
GEAN JOHNSON: Denver gets the
gun, walks out the front door, goes around the house,
and aims at William
00:15:19
as he's walking towards
the back of the yard, and he shoots him. This is a photograph
of the Dodd family property.
00:15:35
William exited the back door. Simmons came out of this
door, which is the front door,
00:15:40
walked around the house,
and from somewhere in this general area, he shot
William as he was walking.
00:15:48
I don't think William's
seen this coming. He was walking away from
Denver when he was shot.
00:15:53
He was walking away from him. LINA HAJI: It seems
there's no hesitation. Shooting an innocent
teenager execution-style
00:16:03
in the back of the head
doesn't even seem to make Simmons flinch. There's a real lack
of concern for human life,
00:16:11
a real callousness,
a real lack of empathy. To him, William is
simply disposable.
00:16:19
SAM DOUGLAS: Leaving
both bodies at the house, Simmons casually drove
to Walterboro to meet a friend.
00:16:27
Later that evening,
he returned. GEAN JOHNSON: He went out
and build a pile in the yard
00:16:34
as if he was
cleaning the yards, and he put both
bodies on this pile and poured gasoline all over
them and set the bodies afire.
00:16:45
Around 3:00 AM, he went back
out and realized that the body was not completely burned.
00:16:52
So now he's got
to figure, what am I going to do with these remains? CYNTHIA ROLDAN: He ends up
discarding the bodies somewhere
00:16:59
along South Carolina's
rural roads, and then he gets
back in Sheila's car, and he runs for it.
00:17:08
- Having gone to the extent
of burning the bodies and disposing of the bodies
in different areas, to me,
00:17:15
it goes above and beyond
what's actually necessary. People who are
high on psychopathy
00:17:20
tend to have a need
for stimulation. That's one of the personality
traits within the construct
00:17:26
of psychopathy. I suspect that Simmons is
enjoying this entire process. He's still feeling
in power and in control.
00:17:39
SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons
drove for six hours through the night to the town
of Fort Oglethorpe
00:17:44
on the Georgia-Tennessee
border, 300 miles away. He abandoned Sheila's
vehicle in the parking lot
00:17:52
of a medical center
and called his mom to come and pick him up. - He visits his mother
and then ultimately
00:18:01
checks himself
into a psychiatric hospital in Tennessee. SAM DOUGLAS: Whilst he
was with his mother,
00:18:07
Simmons had made
a shocking confession. - Mom called me, and she
told me that he had
00:18:15
killed a woman and her child. I couldn't believe
that he had done that. At some point, she got him
to that mental health hospital
00:18:26
and had him admitted. LINA HAJI: His mother
is likely somebody he feels he can confess
to without having
00:18:36
to face the repercussions. He's already setting up
his future defense, which is that I'm mentally
ill and therefore I'm
00:18:47
not accountable
for my actions, and I'm going to prove that
to you by checking myself
00:18:51
into a mental health hospital. TARA J. LEWIS: I went
to my sister's, and we went to the cops.
00:18:57
And we told them
what we knew, and they kind of look
at us like we're crazy, because Dayton's a small
town and stuff like that
00:19:05
don't normally happen. And they said they
would check into it. SAM DOUGLAS: The police reached
out to their counterparts
00:19:15
in South Carolina. GEAN JOHNSON: I
was a lieutenant with the criminal
investigations
00:19:25
division at the Colleton
County Sheriff's Office. I received a call from my
dispatcher about mid-morning,
00:19:33
and she stated that there
was a young man there that told his mother
that he had killed a lady
00:19:40
and took her car. Simmons didn't give a name
as to who he had killed. Oglethorpe, Georgia,
sent investigators
00:19:51
to the mental hospital that
Denver had checked himself in. Once they got
to the hospital to interview
00:19:58
Denver, the only thing he said,
I did not tell my mother that. I didn't tell them
that I killed anybody.
00:20:10
Due to the fact that this
guy was in a mental hospital, it's unknown whether these
allegations were true or not.
00:20:17
We had no information. We was working kind of like
in the blind, so to speak. SAM DOUGLAS: The next
day, an abandoned car
00:20:30
was discovered in the hospital
parking lot in Georgia. Police were alerted. Following a vehicle
database search,
00:20:38
Lieutenant Johnson was informed
that the owner of the vehicle was Sheila Dodd from
Walterboro, South Carolina.
00:20:46
He immediately
spoke to her family. GEAN JOHNSON: She hadn't
been seen for at least two
00:20:52
to three days. They mentioned the fact that
she had a son named William. Nobody had seen him at school.
00:20:59
At that point, we discovered
that he was also missing. SAM DOUGLAS: Lieutenant Johnson
headed to Sheila's property
00:21:06
with an official
search warrant. As soon as they entered
the house, Gean and his team
00:21:11
noticed concerning signs. GEAN JOHNSON: We
found blood spots in the kitchen leading
out to the back door
00:21:20
onto the back porch. This is a blood spot
from the crime scene that we collected
at the Dodd family home
00:21:29
when we were doing our search. SAM DOUGLAS: The burn
pile in the backyard was quickly discovered.
00:21:38
- We spent two, three days
or so at the Dodd family home. As the agents went
through that burn pile,
00:21:45
they located what appeared
to be bone fragments. At the time, we couldn't tell
whether it was human bone
00:21:50
or not. There was two cell
phones had been found. SAM DOUGLAS: Lieutenant
Johnson was now
00:21:56
convinced that what Denver
Simmons had allegedly confessed to his mother was true.
00:22:01
He had killed a woman
and her teenage son. - In my mind at that
time, I honestly
00:22:07
knew he burnt the bodies. SAM DOUGLAS: Seven days after
the murders were committed,
00:22:13
police in Georgia arrested
Simmons in connection with the disappearance of both
Sheila and her son, William.
00:22:26
CYNTHIA ROLDAN: Once he
was taken into custody, he confessed to having
committed the crime.
00:22:31
He was willing to waive
extradition without issue, and he was brought
back to South Carolina.
00:22:40
GEAN JOHNSON: They took
him in an interview room, and it was a recorded
interview, when he admitted
00:22:45
everything that he had done. I think he had enough
time for this crime to sink in and begin
to be remorseful for what
00:22:53
had happened. - He's likely never had kudos
or accolades for anything else he's done in his life.
00:23:01
He might as well
take this moment where all
the attention is on him and make the most out of it.
00:23:07
This really points to
narcissistic traits within him. This is his time to shine.
00:23:12
This is his time to brag. This is his time to boast. He's reveling
in this attention.
00:23:22
SAM DOUGLAS: Three
days later, Simmons willfully led investigators to
the locations of the remains.
00:23:29
GEAN JOHNSON: We're
at the first crime scene that we found the first part
of the remains of Sheila Dodd.
00:23:36
And the area is very remote. It's a hunting area. There's nobody that actually
comes down this road.
00:23:42
Once I got here, along
with other investigators, what we found was
it looked like part
00:23:49
of maybe the torso of Ms.
Dodd and maybe a leg, thigh, and other remains. We bagged everything,
photographed,
00:24:00
and we loaded up
into the coroner's van. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons had dumped
the remains at around 3:00 AM
00:24:10
on the night of the murders. GEAN JOHNSON: This is
the second location. There was a cooler
and a couple of buckets,
00:24:18
and they both had
remains in them. They was charred so bad
we couldn't identify whether it was male or female.
00:24:30
SAM DOUGLAS:
Simmons was charged with the murders of both
Sheila and William Dodd.
00:24:37
He was sent to the Colleton
County Detention Center to await trial. The murders made the headlines.
00:24:45
TARA J. LEWIS: I don't
know that it truly sunk in until you start
seeing clips of the news where
00:24:52
they had found the bodies. It was hard to process. It feels like I'm
talking about a book
00:25:01
that I read about
somebody else's life. It's just really weird. I can't imagine the impact
it had on William
00:25:10
and Sheila's family. They had to be livid
with my brother and probably the entire family.
00:25:16
I mean-- and I
don't blame them. I would be too. GEAN JOHNSON: Sheila was
very close to her family.
00:25:24
They was very heartbroken. They was in turmoil. They couldn't believe
that this had happened.
00:25:30
As far as the motive, why he
would have killed William, I don't know. But for killing Sheila, I
think his motive was the fact
00:25:36
that she put him
out of the house and wouldn't allow
him to come back. CYNTHIA ROLDAN:
Why kill the woman
00:25:42
who opened her home to you. But even then,
why kill her son? Just the fact that he
goes and he picks him up.
00:25:50
You had the opportunity
to let the boy live, and you chose not to. SAM DOUGLAS: Three years later,
Denver Simmons, now aged 29,
00:26:05
faced a judge at Colleton
County Courthouse for the murders
of 45-year-old Sheila Dodd and
00:26:11
her 14-year-old son, William. - Initially, there
was some question about whether he was competent
to stand trial, given
00:26:20
his mental illness
history and the fact that he was found
at a mental illness facility,
00:26:26
but a judge ultimately
determines that he is. SAM DOUGLAS:
Initially, prosecutors
00:26:31
were seeking the death
penalty, but instead, a plea deal was struck. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: Simmons
pled guilty to the crimes.
00:26:42
He ends up accepting
the deal and in turn gets sentenced to
spending the rest of his life
00:26:47
in prison. TARA J. LEWIS:
The judge made sure, you do know you're never going
to see the light of day again.
00:27:04
You're never going
to not be in jail. And he knew. I was thankful that
he pleaded guilty,
00:27:10
that he didn't try to get out
of it for insanity or anything like that. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons was
sent to Kirkland Correctional
00:27:24
Facility in South Carolina. Although the judge had
passed a full sentence and Simmons hadn't
pled mental illness,
00:27:32
he was placed
into the mental health wing so doctors could
assess him due to his
00:27:38
previous bipolar diagnosis. HECTOR BRAVO: When
an inmate enters the system and they're flagged
as having mental issues,
00:27:47
they will be designated to go
to those facilities that are able to provide them
with the care and resources
00:27:53
to address those
mental health needs. LINA HAJI: Mental
health in prisons is considered
a desirable place to be.
00:28:01
You have access to medications. You have access to therapists. Sometimes you get
your own cell.
00:28:05
Sometimes you're
avoiding conflicts and problems with people who
are in general population.
00:28:10
SAM DOUGLAS: Once
incarcerated, Simmons displayed suicidal tendencies. - He attempted to you explore
the idea of self-harm,
00:28:20
and he just admitted
to it being too hard to kill himself, that it hurt. - The way to get what he
wants in prison is through
00:28:32
behaviors such as self-injury. That could be whether he wants
more attention, whether he
00:28:39
wants to talk to a therapist,
maybe spend time with a female who's working in corrections.
00:28:45
Self-mutilation
in a correctional facility is a very powerful,
manipulative tool.
00:28:55
SAM DOUGLAS:
For the next seven years, Simmons received additional
help for his mental health,
00:29:01
ending up in the intermediate
care services unit at Kirkland. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: Denver was
under a crisis intervention
00:29:10
program, which involves a
little more of an involved care to ensure that he's getting
the needed medication and
00:29:17
the needed treatment, whether
that's psychological or psychiatric treatment. SAM DOUGLAS: In 2017,
Simmons, now age 35,
00:29:34
was working in the prison
as a ward keeper. HECTOR BRAVO: Ward
keepers are tasked
00:29:41
with keeping inventory
of the cleaning supplies and distributing it
to the other inmates.
00:29:47
You would have access to other
areas and tools of the prison that a normal inmate would not.
00:29:52
SAM DOUGLAS: Working
alongside Simmons was 25-year-old Jacob Philip. CYNTHIA ROLDAN:
Jacob Philip, he
00:30:00
had pled guilty to killing
his girlfriend and her eight-year-old daughter. He was also somebody
who was mentally ill.
00:30:06
And at that time, when he went
through the trial process, it was determined that
he could simply not
00:30:12
be given the death penalty,
given his mental capacities, and so he was sentenced
to life in prison
00:30:21
at Kirkland Correctional. - It is extremely common
for convicted murderers to be
00:30:26
given jobs in the prison. With the mentally
ill inmates, it's also common
because you don't want
00:30:33
to be violating their rights. Simmons and Philips were
chosen as ward keepers because they have minimal
to no disciplinary actions
00:30:43
against them. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: They were able
to keep their doors unlocked for the majority of the day as
they roam the wing, providing
00:30:52
others with their supplies. SAM DOUGLAS:
On April 7th, the day in the mental health wing,
with its 139 inmates,
00:31:02
began like any other. But at 6:00
in the morning, Simmons and Philip hatched
a brutal plan,
00:31:11
seemingly out of the blue. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: They had been
discussing ways to pass time,
00:31:19
and they decided that they
were going to attempt to kill as many people as they could.
00:31:25
Their plan was to lure
as many prisoners as possible to Denver Simmons'
cell and kill
00:31:30
them as quickly as possible. LINA HAJI: The friendship
between Philips and Simmons
00:31:36
was very transactional. It was almost the perfect storm
of two probably psychopathic
00:31:43
individual inmates who can
now help each other further their criminal activity. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons and Philip
targeted their first victim.
00:31:55
CYNTHIA ROLDAN: The first
inmate was John King. He'd been in prison
for theft, but
00:32:02
he was a nuisance to Denver
Simmons and Jacob Philip. And so they lured
him to the cell
00:32:09
with the promise of coffee. Philip walks him in and comes
up from behind him and chokes him with
his arm until he passes
00:32:19
out and ultimately dies. And then he pushed his
body under his bunk. SAM DOUGLAS: The deadly
duo immediately
00:32:34
moved on to their next target. CYNTHIA ROLDAN:
The next prisoner that Denver and Jacob
end up luring
00:32:41
ends up being William Scruggs. They had known each other
from working with each other.
00:32:47
He was waiting in line
to go to the bathroom, and he lures him under the
pretense of getting a cookie.
00:32:56
- Simmons used an extension
cord from a lamp and wrapped it around Scruggs'
neck while he was facing him.
00:33:03
He ended up choking him out. He also got a towel
and hung it from the bunk to conceal Scruggs' corpse.
00:33:13
LINA HAJI: It's such a
depraved, sick, and twisted way to lure their victims
with such menial things
00:33:22
like coffee and cookies. This is just a game. The first part of the game
is, how do we lure the person?
00:33:29
The second part of the game
is the actual murder. The third part of the game
is concealing a body.
00:33:36
It's almost like
they've come up with a checklist
of how they're supposed to execute these crimes.
00:33:43
SAM DOUGLAS: The two
correctional officers working on the wing had no
idea what was happening,
00:33:50
due to the fact that
between them, they were overseeing 139 inmates. Simmons had also done his best
to put them off the scent.
00:34:03
HECTOR BRAVO:
Simmons hung a flap over the narrow
window in his room, in this case, a trash bag
with the words scrawled,
00:34:11
"Using the restroom. Don't bother." CYNTHIA ROLDAN: The third
prisoner that they lured in
00:34:16
was Jimmy Ham, and they
lured him in on the pretense that they had drugs. So they invited
him over to share.
00:34:23
- They advised Ham
to cut the tablets up so they can snort it. Philip attempted to pounce
on him, but he slipped.
00:34:30
A struggle ensued, so Simmons
grabbed a broom handle and hit Ham over the head twice.
00:34:37
And in order to silence
him, he shoved the broom handle down his throat. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: At this point,
they were at three prisoners.
00:34:52
With each one, they
kept killing them and then moving them
by their bunk bed or under the bunk bed
or next to each other.
00:35:03
SAM DOUGLAS: Their killing
frenzy continued. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: They decided
to target Jason Kelly,
00:35:09
who was serving 15 years. And what was
different about Jason is that Denver
considered him a friend,
00:35:16
and yet they just
decided he was going to lure him in as well. They go up to Jason.
00:35:23
Hey, come on over. I got to show you
something over at my bunk. And so as Jason is
peeking behind the sheets,
00:35:34
he finds the bodies. Denver pounces on him
and uses the broomstick to press it on his throat
until he ultimately passes out.
00:35:46
And not knowing whether
he was conscious or dead, he decided to ram
the broomstick down his ear.
00:35:58
LINA HAJI: Now it's not
just enough to murder. It's not just enough
to choke somebody out.
00:36:03
Now we have to murder somebody
who we consider a friend. It's almost like an alcohol
abuser or somebody
00:36:08
who's addicted to drugs. The tolerance level
has to increase. And so the level
of depravity and the sadism
00:36:15
has to go a little bit higher. - Once Kelly had
passed, they decided that they just were
done hiding the bodies,
00:36:25
and so Simmons turns
to Jacob, says, hey, who do you want to do next? And Jacob Philip basically
says that he's kind of bored
00:36:34
and he doesn't want
to do it anymore. And so they both just
kind of nonchalantly
00:36:39
agreed that they're
done with it, and they're done with
their killing spree. SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons
walked straight
00:36:45
up to one
of the correctional officers and told them
to look in his cell. CYNTHIA ROLDAN:
And that's where
00:36:53
they find Kelly, who's lying
on the ground uncovered, then ultimately
the three others
00:36:57
who were behind the bunk. - Philips and Simmons admitted
that they planned the murders,
00:37:03
and they displayed no remorse. LINA HAJI: It's really
a cowardly move here. It's very easy
on a mental health
00:37:10
unit in prison for the
high-functioning inmates to take advantage
of the low-functioning inmates,
00:37:14
and that's exactly
what happened here. They were vulnerable
people who were easy prey.
00:37:19
SAM DOUGLAS: The crime
scene was locked down. - So for a correctional officer
to deal with numerous inmates
00:37:29
passing away on their shifts,
it's extremely hectic. You identify the suspects,
escort the suspects,
00:37:36
ensure that there's brown
paper bags on their hands so they don't wash their hands
or get rid of any DNA,
00:37:41
evidence preservation. You place the inmate,
the suspect, in administrative
segregation for the murder,
00:37:47
and then ultimately,
you'll call the coroner. - When I found out that he
had killed four more people,
00:38:02
I was in disbelief, shock. I can't wrap my mind around
what he was thinking, why he did what he did.
00:38:17
SAM DOUGLAS: 35-year-old
Denver Simmons was transferred to Lieber Correctional
Facility in Ridgeville,
00:38:24
where he remained until
a trial date could be set. And a self-serving
motive for the murders
00:38:32
was starting to emerge. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: To be
sentenced to life in prison and die basically forgotten is
a worse sentence than death.
00:38:45
As people forget you,
as the system forgets you, as reporters forget you,
and everything moves on,
00:38:51
becomes one of those situations
where, what do I do next? And in Denver's case,
it was, I am bored,
00:39:00
and what a way to get
attention again than to get rid of these people
who annoy the heck out of me.
00:39:09
- I believe at that
moment he probably did want the death penalty. I know he had tried to kill
himself before in prison,
00:39:20
but he's even said it's
hard to do to yourself. So he thought by doing that,
he would be killing himself
00:39:26
by the hand of the state. - If Simmons really wanted
to take his own life, he could have done it.
00:39:32
That simply wasn't the case. I don't know that he has
the capability of being suicidal because his
ego and his will
00:39:41
to not only live,
but to inflict harm on others is what keeps him going. SAM DOUGLAS: Two months
after the murders,
00:39:57
Simmons gave
an interview to reporters where he explained his actions
along with Jacob Philips.
00:40:35
LINA HAJI: He's almost
saying that like he's reading a recipe. What's interesting about
psychopathy is that a lot
00:40:41
of the times they learn
to mimic human emotions. He knows that what he did is
going to be viewed as bad,
00:40:49
and that it's horrible
that he knew them, and that some
of them trusted them. But I don't think he
buys what he's saying.
00:41:07
- Denver doesn't
process like we do. He doesn't feel like we do. He is very self-serving.
00:41:17
SAM DOUGLAS: Simmons
ultimately admitted that his goal was to die,
and that he murdered in order
00:41:24
to receive the death penalty. Despite this, he was doubtful
of his future sentencing
00:41:31
before he even went to trial. CYNTHIA ROLDAN:
Typically, this kind of action in South Carolina
would carry the death sentence,
00:41:51
but given their mental
illness, it is far less likely
for a judge to sentence a prisoner with this
type of medical history
00:42:00
to a death sentence. LINA HAJI: It's a very
odd way of Simmons rationalizing his behavior.
00:42:18
You know, if you're
suicidal, that doesn't equate to homicidal. I'm not saying
they can't coexist,
00:42:24
but I don't think that's
the case here with Simmons. SAM DOUGLAS: In November
2019, Simmons and Jacob Philip
00:42:31
were sentenced to four
life sentences each for the murders of John
King, William Scruggs,
00:42:40
Jimmy Ham, and Jason Kelly. TARA J. LEWIS: I went into
the courthouse in Columbia.
00:42:52
It was very short. There was no emotion in that
courtroom from him at all. Like, it was just
very, did you do this?
00:43:02
Yes, I did it. And that was the end of it. No feeling from him. SAM DOUGLAS: The murders
of the four inmates
00:43:15
remains a shocking tragedy. - The hardest thing was
that the majority of them were going to reintegrate
into society.
00:43:26
It's just
heartbreaking for them, for their families, for the
people who thought my brother,
00:43:32
my cousin, my dad is coming
home in just a few years, and now he's not. TARA J. LEWIS:
The person that killed
00:43:46
all these people feels
like a different person than the brother that I know. I've never stopped
loving my brother, ever.
00:43:57
I had pushed him away. He pushed himself
away out of my life. I'm still angry at him.
00:44:05
I think I'll always
be angry at him. SAM DOUGLAS: Denver
Simmons is now being held in Perry
Correctional Institution,
00:44:17
a maximum security
prison in South Carolina. - He's incapable of taking
responsibility for his actions.
00:44:24
He's callous. He's manipulative. He lacks remorse. He lived a parasitic lifestyle.
00:44:30
These are all traits that,
when you put them together, really make up what
we call a psychopath
00:44:35
or what we would
refer to as evil. CYNTHIA ROLDAN: I struggle
with the word evil
00:44:41
because he was mentally
ill, but his actions were definitely evil. Because taking
anyone's life can be
00:44:48
considered nothing but evil. - As long as he's
alive and able, I think he will always be
a danger to other people.
00:45:01
I don't want to believe
that he's evil, but I know that
there's evil in him. There's no doubt.
00:45:09
You would have to be an evil
person to kill six people. [theme music]